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Saturday, November 9, 2013

For this Bourbon Review, I wanted
to find three bourbons aged exactly the same number of years, all with rye as
the secondary grain, and all with similar Proof, but priced very
differently. Three bourbons meeting
those criteria are Eagle Rare Single Barrel 10-Year, Bulleit Bourbon 10-Year
Small Batch and Michter’s Single Barrel 10-Year, so “The 10-Year Challenge” was
born. Would the hard-to-find, expensive
bourbon come out on top? Or would the
readily-available $30 bottle teach us all a valuable lesson?

Bourbons in order of
blind tasting:

·Eagle Rare Single Barrel 10-Year (90 proof;
$29.99);

·Bulleit Bourbon 10-Year Small Batch (91.2 proof;
$39.99);

·Michter’s Single Barrel 10-Year (94.4 proof;
$85.99).

1st Glass (Eagle
Rare):

The first glass was a favorite of
many of our tasters right away. The nose
was light and not particularly complex, but pleasant. Common tasting notes included a nice balance
of oaky and sweet flavors. The finish
was dry and short to medium.

2nd Glass (Bulleit):

Two of the tasters had an immediate
negative reaction to the second glass.
But overall, reviews were good (ultimately just not better that the
first and third glasses). The second
glass had a much more fragrant nose than the first, which was followed by a
bolder taste and more complex and longer finish. Caramel, vanilla, oaky, citrus and aggressive
spice were all common tasting notes.

3rd Glass (Michter’s):

The third glass was noticeably
darker in appearance, a rich caramel compared to the lighter amber of the first
two glasses. Like the second glass, the
nose was much more prominent and bold, but it differed from the second glass by
having more of a smoky, earthy nose. Tasting
notes were dominated by comments about its complexity. Licorice, oak, caramel, vanilla, sweet corn,
buttery, and warm spices were all noticeable. The tasters liked the comparatively longer and
warmer finish, too.

Winner:

Out of eight tasters, our results
were all over the board. All three
received 1st, 2nd and 3rd place votes, but
Michter’s slightly nudged out Eagle
Rare with one more 1st place vote.
Michter’s also only received a single 3rd place vote, while
Eagle Rare received two. Bulleit only
received one 1st place vote, and received a stunning five 3rd
place votes. So Michter’s won by a nose,
with Eagle Rare very close behind, and Bulleit a distant third.

Bottom Line:

I had some initial hesitancy about including two NDP
(non-distiller producer) bourbons compared to just one bourbon, Eagle Rare,
where the distillery, Buffalo Trace, is known.
I even received some immediate Twitter feedback from my post on the
night of this event for including two NDPs.
But I got over this hesitancy pretty quickly because Bulleit and Michter’s
fit the theme, popular belief is that this Bulleit is a Four Roses recipe, and
good bourbon is good
bourbon, no matter what liberties marketers take.

I was pleased to see that, despite their similarities, these
three bourbons were all very different from each other and that no one bourbon
stood out from the others. That lack of
separation, however, requires consideration about price. The Eagle Rare is the clear price-performer
of the three, and given its results at the tasting, Eagle Rare 10-Year is a
no-brainer to add to your shelf.

But personally, I scored the Bulleit higher than anyone else
(then again, I’m also a big fan of Four Roses).
I think that the tasters who preferred Eagle Rare would probably prefer
Bulleit in a cocktail because its bolder flavors don’t get lost, so depending
on how you plan to drink these bourbons, my recommendation would change.

Finally, even though it was the overall winner and even
though I really liked it, I expected
the Michter’s to completely wow me (it didn't). For
anyone else who expects an almost $90 bourbon to wow them, then you may be
better off sticking with Eagle Rare and Bulleit, which are readily available everywhere. Still, Michter’s won The 10-Year Challenge,
and its profile is very different than the other two options, so if you’re
splurging and can find it, it's worth a look.

My final recommendation is that while Eagle Rare 10-Year,
Bulleit 10-Year and Michter’s 10-Year may be better than each other on
different occasions, all three are great buys that deserve room on your
shelf.

Scores on The
Sipp’n Corn Scale

Eagle Rare Single
Barrel 10-Year: 4.0

Bulleit 10-Year Small
Batch: 3.0

Michter’s Single
Barrel 10-Year: 4.0

The Sipp’n Corn Scale:

1 – Wouldn’t
even accept a free drink of it.

2 – Would
gladly drink it if someone else was buying.

3 – Glad to
include this in my bar.

4 – Excellent
bourbon. Worth the price and I’m sure to
always have it in my bar.

5 comments:

Great reviews: both useful and informative. I appreciate the way you clarify different criteria that influence ratings and make this very user friendly. Of course, I just happen to agree with the conclusions, but even if I didn't, the tasting is decribed in a way to be helpful even to those who might not share the tastes of your tasting panel.

I have not heard Four Roses as a source, but there have been different sources. The best Michter's 10-yr bottles supposedly came from Willett, and I've heard from a reliable source that current bottles come from Brown-Forman. But so much of this is guesswork with NDPs. Thanks for reading and commenting!